I’d like to be different, but I’m just an average rat watching smarter tails slither further up the maze, chasing their shadows into cul-de-sac, where lead against a wall, I beg myself to turn around, don’t, and claw heedlessly at the mortar, hard scrabble hoping it’ll eventually give, knowing behind it will only ever be another aimless scramble of corridors, scratching out a worn down life, tired to the point where I stop looking for either prize or purpose, sitting finally in place, fettered with options, lamenting that the hardest thing I ever did was take the simplest path.